I don't follow religion, but I respect those that do. If you find comfort in your faith, then I will not debate that. But...as the (Christian) Bible states that God made us all, who or what do you think of as God?

From a study of the Bible, I have learned that God is a spirit being, not a physical flesh-and-blood person (John 4:24).

God lives in heaven. (Psalm 11:4, 5).

There is only one true God (1 Corinthians 8:5, 6).

God has many titles, but he also has a personal name, translated "Jehovah" or "Yahweh." Many versions of the Bible, however, replace these names with "LORD" (in capitals). In some translations, his name can be found at Psalm 83:18.

Some people believe God and Jesus are the same person, but from studying the Bible, I have found that they are separate, and Jesus is the son of God (John 1:49).

Jehovah is loving, just, wise, and powerful, and I believe these are his four most prominent attributes (Deuteronomy 32:4; Job 12:13; Isaiah 40:26; 1 John 4:8). He is also kind, merciful and forgiving, patient, and generous. I also believe he feels very deeply for his creations.

The ways we as humans can learn about God are:1) through observing nature, the things he has created (Romans 1:20). I believe when you really start to look at things, the way the planet and its inhabitants are built, it provides deep insight to the mind of God, just like a painting can tell a lot about the painter.2) through studying the Bible. The Bible is where we can learn about what kind of person/being God is, and it also tells us about his purpose for humankind and the planet, and why he lovingly extended to us the gift of existence.

I´m not religious, I´m an agnostic. I believe that if there is a God, there is no way that we can understand him. I think God is just uncomprehensible to us. I think it´s the same as ants and humans. There is no way an ant can understand what a human is and all its complexity.

I don't go to church. I just try and do the right thing in case there is a heaven or hell, I would not want to go to hell of course.

one day on another forum I posted about being saved. I could not really get a straight answer on what it is, and it seemed to me, that it's something that could only happen in a church environment, and seemed to be all in your head. I really don't understand

I haven't seen any convincing evidence for the existence of God, so I don't think he exists. The whole idea of a God doesn't make any sense to me.The way I see it, we want to feel significant, so we created a religion where we are the center of the universe. When in reality, we are no more significant than a grain of sand on the beach.We're just here as a result of evolution.

scott85 wrote:one day on another forum I posted about being saved. I could not really get a straight answer on what it is, and it seemed to me, that it's something that could only happen in a church environment, and seemed to be all in your head. I really don't understand

if anyone can shed more light on this I would appreciate it

This brings to mind an occasion when I was younger, and dragged to an obscure religious meeting. There was a choir and guitars, and it was all very jolly. However, when it fell silent, one person began speaking in "tongues" followed gradually by others. Within about 15 mins, the whole church hall was (in my humble teenage opinion back then) a mass of gibbering idiots. It was actually quite scary because everyone seemed to be in a trance - all chanting nonsense, swaying, and their hands waving slowly upwards.

It was explained (patronisingly) that only the *saved* people could communicate with God this way. I don't know if this helps any, Scott....but this is what being *saved* means to me. A clique who have God on Speed Dial.

Molly wrote:This brings to mind an occasion when I was younger, and dragged to an obscure religious meeting. There was a choir and guitars, and it was all very jolly. However, when it fell silent, one person began speaking in "tongues" followed gradually by others. Within about 15 mins, the whole church hall was (in my humble teenage opinion back then) a mass of gibbering idiots. It was actually quite scary because everyone seemed to be in a trance - all chanting nonsense, swaying, and their hands waving slowly upwards.

It was explained (patronisingly) that only the *saved* people could communicate with God this way. I don't know if this helps any, Scott....but this is what being *saved* means to me. A clique who have God on Speed Dial.

thank you all for the replies, I would like to think it's real, but I'm a very realistic person. without clear evidence it's hard for me to believe. I will still try and do the right thing, in case there is a heaven though. I'm glad some of you understand what I mean - it means a lot to me. I appreciate the honest/straight up answers. BS is BS right? I hope I'm not offending anyone here. if you are religious I respect that and do what you feel is right.

Sunny49 wrote:I´m not religious, I´m an agnostic. I believe that if there is a God, there is no way that we can understand him. I think God is just uncomprehensible to us. I think it´s the same as ants and humans. There is no way an ant can understand what a human is and all its complexity.

I kind of agree with this one and with Snowcrow´s comment.

I don´t believe there is something like a god of any kind. But if there is/are some, the idea that it´s the one/ones described by any existing religion seems very unlikely and quite weird to me. I like the example with ant that can´t understand human, that Sunny wrote. But I would make it even more distant from each other. Because an ant still can see a human, because both humans and ants live in a 3D world. I don´t see any reason why god(s) should be interested in the world and interfering like some religions say. From my point of view, we are just a type of monkey, and it may be civilization of inteligent turtles in 1 million years after all humans die. I just don´t believe in existence of any gods. But at the same time, I know nothing about god´s existence. Just like everybody else.

I had a conversation a few weeks ago with my seven year old nephew about the Pope and the bunch of cardinals. My nephew's train of thought isn't polluted yet by modern society and modern education, so the questions he asks and the comments he gives are seemingly uninterfered by political correctness and logical barriers. It's really interesting.I told him the Pope and his cardinals spend their whole lives serving God. Well, first try to explain to a seven year old what serving really is. It took some time before I came up with the simplest and correct way to explain it.

His question was why these people basically spend their whole lives as hermits to be granted access to heaven. His point was that when people lead a morally correct live (or a 'nice life and being kind to people' as he stated it) they'll be allowed into heaven anyway because He loves everybody. That way you don't have to lead a strict and 'boring' (his words) life and experience the benefits of a possible heaven too.

His follow-up question was why these people don't want to experience God's creation by traveling the globe and instead spend their whole lives reading the Bible, praying and never visit anything but church(es). When they finally enter heaven they've almost not seen a thing of the creation of the Force they've been serving their whole lives. It's almost as if they don't care about His creation but simply want to reap the benefits of His salvation. He basically finds the Pope and his cardinals and other secluded religious people a bunch of hypocrites .

Those were some really good questions for such a young kid. I couldn't answer any of them convincingly.

I'm not religious myself. I, however, do see the benefits of a religious upbringing and the installment of moral values and such. They seem to be missing in a lot of atheists.If you look at the Universe as a whole and find that ~100% of this place would kill a human instantly, take into account the almost pardoxical dual function of our sexual organs and the placement of our esophagus and trachea I would call God either an idiot or something with weird sadistical tendencies.

His question was why these people basically spend their whole lives as hermits to be granted access to heaven. His point was that when people lead a morally correct life (or a 'nice life and being kind to people' as he stated it) they'll be allowed into heaven anyway because He loves everybody. That way you don't have to lead a strict and 'boring' (his words) life and experience the benefits of a possible heaven too.

I'm not sure if this is related to Christianity or anything to do with the bible, but my answer would be related to Buddhism. To my knowledge, they live their lives as a 'hermit' because they value life, to kill even an insect would be sacrilege to them, so they keep themselves on 'sacred-ground' as a means of protection. They're very honourable people; but they keep that honour to themselves, seeing little need to express it to the world at large.

I would have explained to the child that God shouldn't be perceived as a man; a being that sits in the sky looking down at everyone and keeping tabs. That's a common misconception - a 'media portrayal.'

I don't think heaven itself is meant to be regarded as a pearly-gate physical place (again, media misconception), it's meant to be a representation of good and being at peace within yourself. When you die, the idea is you've lived a good life and pass on with honour and respect. Of course, this depends on the religion you wish to talk about, because this varies from angle.

It's really interesting.I told him the Pope and his cardinals spend their whole lives serving God. Well, first try to explain to a seven year old what serving really is. It took some time before I came up with the simplest and correct way to explain it.

I think in that situation I would've tried explaining what God was, what it purports to be. Different religions follow a different type of 'God;' Greek mythology gives rise to several Gods (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, etcetera). I have a feeling this could be more a 'physical-being' thing like you get in the media, but I reckon it's a case of the Ancient Greeks wanted to visualise the environment and they came up with 'Lord of the Water' as an example. Though I must admit my knowledge of this subject leaves a lot to be desired.

I think one of the problems the word 'God' has is there is no single definition. For me, 'God' is a synonym of nature itself, what gives rise to life and death, trees and animals. What Christianity would define as 'God' may well be completely different to say how Muslims define 'God.' Once you have a specific definition of God to work with, discussions about it would be more concise I think.

God is the universe. I personally believe that God was born from the Big Bang but that's just me and as far as I know I'm the only one who believes that. The Christian Bible says that God made humans in his own image i have seen pictures of the universe( dying star, nebula) compared to pictures of parts inside of the human body( cell birth, eye and they look the same.

There are a lot of ideas here, and I have read them all, but a lot of them are too complicated to respond to, plus I don't want to get into arguments.

I like what Kurtis said about media portraying things in such a manner that further obscures what is real.

Dr. D, that's an interesting thought. I remember, actually, I used to think something similar when I was younger, when I was trying to figure out where God came from... so you're not alone there in having that theory, although I do believe differently, now.

I believe differently since the Big Bang (possibly) was an event, and I have learned that according to the Scriptures, God has existed forever. That concept is difficult, actually impossible (I think) for imperfect humans to grasp, currently. We all have beginnings, and we are finite, therefore we have a hard time imagining something infinite with our finite minds. While we can know enough about God to be close to him and to be his friend, we can never grasp how deep his thoughts and love are, and there are many deep things about him we cannot grasp.

Psalm 90:2 says: Even from time indefinite to time indefinite you are God.

If "to time indefinite" we know means "forever in the future," then it might be easier to grasp that "from time indefinite" means "forever in the past."

My thoughts on it are that basically everyone you ask "what is God?" will give you a different answer; it simply means different things to different people, and it's up to you to figure out what it means to you

Dutchman wrote:I had a conversation a few weeks ago with my seven year old nephew about the Pope and the bunch of cardinals. My nephew's train of thought isn't polluted yet by modern society and modern education, so the questions he asks and the comments he gives are seemingly uninterfered by political correctness and logical barriers. It's really interesting.I told him the Pope and his cardinals spend their whole lives serving God. Well, first try to explain to a seven year old what serving really is. It took some time before I came up with the simplest and correct way to explain it.

His question was why these people basically spend their whole lives as hermits to be granted access to heaven. His point was that when people lead a morally correct live (or a 'nice life and being kind to people' as he stated it) they'll be allowed into heaven anyway because He loves everybody. That way you don't have to lead a strict and 'boring' (his words) life and experience the benefits of a possible heaven too.

His follow-up question was why these people don't want to experience God's creation by traveling the globe and instead spend their whole lives reading the Bible, praying and never visit anything but church(es). When they finally enter heaven they've almost not seen a thing of the creation of the Force they've been serving their whole lives. It's almost as if they don't care about His creation but simply want to reap the benefits of His salvation. He basically finds the Pope and his cardinals and other secluded religious people a bunch of hypocrites .

LOL, this is awesome

And this what Dr. D said is very interesting. Maybe God is the Universe, the planets are his cells ane we are some bacteria on the cells

My thoughts on it are that basically everyone you ask "what is God?" will give you a different answer; it simply means different things to different people, and it's up to you to figure out what it means to you

Aye, even Wikipedia doesn't have one definitive answer:

In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe. In deism, God is the creator (but not the sustainer) of the universe. In pantheism, God is the universe itself. Theologians have ascribed a variety of attributes to the many different conceptions of God.

Going from that alone, I think I would consider my own views on the matter along the lines of 'Pantheism,' so that's generally where my view-point of God will come from.

His question was why these people basically spend their whole lives as hermits to be granted access to heaven. His point was that when people lead a morally correct live (or a 'nice life and being kind to people' as he stated it) they'll be allowed into heaven anyway because He loves everybody. That way you don't have to lead a strict and 'boring' (his words) life and experience the benefits of a possible heaven too.

His follow-up question was why these people don't want to experience God's creation by traveling the globe and instead spend their whole lives reading the Bible, praying and never visit anything but church(es). When they finally enter heaven they've almost not seen a thing of the creation of the Force they've been serving their whole lives. It's almost as if they don't care about His creation but simply want to reap the benefits of His salvation. He basically finds the Pope and his cardinals and other secluded religious people a bunch of hypocrites .

The Pope and Cardinals do travel when they need to (which is quite often), but they're usually also busy running one of the largest organizations on the planet. Additionally, they're all older men who have *already* spent the majority of their lives out in the world, experiencing wonderful things while spreading the word of the Lord. And if they only cared about their own salvation, do you think they would bother running a huge organization such as the Church or fund/authorize/found/participate in all kinds of programs to help others?

I think there may be as many definitions of god as there are people who believe in god.

My personal opinion is that god is the personification of the human fear of the unknown. Our knowledge about the universe leads us to an infinite regress, and eventually we have to admit that "we just don't know," but it seems that we hate to admit that we don't know, and god provides an easy, yet illogical, solution to this seemingly impossible problem. However, there's currently no good, logical reason to accept this solution, so only people who are gullible and take it on faith can accept this answer.

I've yet to come across a god claim that doesn't rely on a logical fallacy (typically special pleading and the argument from ignorance), and I see no reason to believe in any higher powers until a reasonable, logical claim is made.

I'm an agnostic atheist according to the iron chariots definition of atheism and agnosticism, and that's a result of my skepticism. I'm a skeptic first and foremost, and a proper application of skepticism leads to agnostic atheism, as none of the god claims put forth thus far have met their burden of proof.

I'm not religious myself. I, however, do see the benefits of a religious upbringing and the installment of moral values and such. They seem to be missing in a lot of atheists.

I can't help but be puzzled by this. They're not so much "instilling moral values" as they are enforcing arbitrary moral regulations. People who follow religious morality aren't moral, nor are they immoral, they're slaves following orders handed down from on high, whether they're moral or not, because what god says goes, and we all know that might means right, right? If you don't follow your own moral compass, you're not even acting as a moral agent. Just look at the story of Abraham.

"By all means let's be open minded, but not so open minded that our brains fall out."

I'll leave you with this to further puzzle on. You stated you hold a skeptic position when it comes to religion and thus a skeptic position to objective morality. Ofcourse this position naturally leads to agnosticism/atheism and the idea of morality being subjective.

However, what if I tell you the skeptic position in this case is simply absurd or even hypocritical? You, as well as many other atheists wouldn't accept any subjective answers in any given area, especially when it comes to the sciences. Atheists blame and in some cases even ridicule theists for their subjective appreciation of an entity, because their appreciation is not based on reality (burden of proof etc). Well.. we must blame these atheists of their subjective position when it comes to morality. One has to claim that in the absence of objective reality, we must fall back on subjectivism. When objective evidence is absent, we have to shut our mouths. We can go no further than the extent which our rational evaluation takes us, as it will indulge us in fantasy.

I take a skeptical position on everything, but that doesn't necessarily mean I believe that morality is entirely subjective. For each situation where a moral decision is required, there is a course of action that is objectively superior to every other course of action, but we aren't always able to determine that.

I'm not sure I follow you when you say it's absurd or hypocritical. Who says that I and many atheists wouldn't accept any subjective answers? I agree that any sensible person wouldn't accept a subjective answer in the sciences, as that isn't even science. The scientific method is used to determine what is objectively true. I can accept a subjective answer in other areas it if it can be logically justified. Moral decisions can be logically justified, such as with utilitarianism, for example, but religious morality has only an illogical basis. Nothing about me labeling myself as an agnostic atheist or a skeptic means I must restrict myself to only objective evidence. I can still use logic and reason.

"By all means let's be open minded, but not so open minded that our brains fall out."

As a Theist I believe in God. Although I don't adhere to any religion, I have nothing against anyone's beliefs or non-beliefs. I believe that God is not something or someone "out there" separate from us. Everything that exists is an aspect of God. (Quite a pantheistic view, I know) The universal energy that exists inseperably within and throughout all existence. I believe God just is (the Alpha and the Omega, I Am that I Am etc) and we are the human aspect of Her. That conscious energy is what we call Love, but a love more profound and vast then we can, in our present form comprehend. Also, ENTJ that small child spoke the truth. Wisdom indeed. We are from the Light and to the Light we shall return.

At the moment I'm an agnostic. I'm okay with the concept of the afterlife and there being more than the natural world, but all the specifics of major religion don't make sense to me. I don't believe there's enough evidence on either side of ists or atheists to completely agree with one. I have had some experiences that could be interpreted as some kind of destiny, but I can't say for sure. In short: I'm not sure.

I'm not religious but am Spiritual, this is what I believe, there is a Higher Power, we have Souls ,that survive the death of our physical bodies.There are Angels, that there is some kind of plan for all of us, there are no accidents, as everything happens for a reason. I don't go to Churchas I don't feel comfortable with organized religion.

I follow the teachings of Buddhism and the Buddha said the following regarding God:

1) The Buddha, like modern sociologists and psychologists, believed that religious ideas and especially the god idea have their origins in fear.2) The Buddha did not believe in a god because there does not seem to be any evidence to support this idea.3) The third reason the Buddha did not believe in a god is that the belief is not necessary.

I'm not a fan of organized religions, which seem to consist mostly of political power structures designed to keep themselves in existence. I respect people believing whatever they do as long as they allow others to live their lives differently and don't try to push their beliefs on everyone else. I've always believed in a power greater than us or something "out there" that is all-loving. I've wound my way through a variety of belief systems through the years, on my own, after one brief membership in a church when I was young.

As of a couple of years ago I'm a student of A Course in Miracles, which is difficult to explain in a few words. Basically it teaches that this world is an illusion, a dream of sorts, that God has nothing to do with. It teaches that there is no sin, that our spiritual goal here is simply forgiveness and letting go of our unconscious guilt over making up this dream of separation, and to eventually wake up in Reality and the realization that we're all One and still at home with God. It teaches that God is pure Love and that nothing else really exists.

It's a belief that's probably not for everyone, but I get a lot out of it, especially in dealing with difficult relationships.

hang in there with me, I'm tipsy.... What if God, Jesus, and every other god from other cultures including ancient ones are really aliens? Here the kicker,I grew up Christian and I mean really Christian. My grandparents were missionary's and started a few churches. I grew up in the church and was involved in church stuff. I studied the Bible a lot.

There are prophesies about a shining object that moves in the air in ways that no one and nothing can mimic today. God shows himself in spectacular ways i.e. Moses and the commandments. Does God really need to make such pomp and circumstance?Effects from touching the arc of the covenant mimic radiation. The very beginning of the Bible starts out in plural. Sounds like an alien episode but all of these things can be found in the Bible.Then you have the apacrypha, the Book of Enoch. "Angels" or possibly really aliens teach humans how to make fire, how to make weapons, how to hunt, and basically other things that we do in a daily basis today.Oh and then Jesus is in a crowd, Mark 5:30-34. When a girl touches his clothes. He asks and looks around to find who touches him. Wouldn't he already know?There is another about when Jesus would come back. I swear I spent forever trying to find it for you, but he says to look for a man by the well gathering water. A man holding a jug of water or being by the water is the astrological sign for Aquarius. Christians use the symbol of the fish to recognise each other because at that timeframe we were under the sign of Pisces. Before that we had Moses under the sign of Taurus. Youight be familiar with the golden calf story. Star signs move backwards. Soon we will be entering the sign of Aquarius. All that to say....FINALLY!!! I think God in the sense of this question, or at least facets connected to God or other gods are aliens.Personally, I believe THE God is purely and beautifully anti matter and matter combining into the big bang!Where, hope I didn't kill you guys.

It's always fun to speculate, but where is the scientific evidence of aliens visiting Earth?

For another take on religion in general, check out the excellent Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by historian Yuval Noah Harari. As he tells it, primates - including humans - can only maintain social networks in groups of around 50 individuals, with an absolute maximum of 150. This was fine for small bands of nomadic hunter-gatherers, but not so good when agriculture came along. Then three "shared imaginary orders" arose that enabled humankind to cooperate in much larger numbers: religion, empire and money. The most obvious example with religion is the Crusades, which were the beginning of the idea of Europe as an entity (of sorts), as knights of different countries fought together to retake the Holy Land.

There are renaissance paintings where in the background you see people in first looking objects. Some speculate this is showing angels, others say aliens. In some Mayan ruins there are glyphs that look like a person actually steering machinery. I can come back with links when I am on a desktop if someone wants to see them. I'm on a smartphone that is too smart for me

OK, but the things you mentioned are more like anecdotal evidence or coincidence rather than scientific evidence. I would have expected some alien technology or unequivocal sightings if aliens were visiting us regularly. Unless of course there is a conspiracy to hide it from us...

After my 21 years here on earth I'd realized that there is no one who truly knows the answer.

We can keep staying awake until 3 in the morning pondering about God and heaven or hell but can never be really sure of the truth. People, priests, scientists, atheists have been debating for thousands of years about who is right and have yet to find the answer.

I'm Catholic, I believe in following Jesus examples and to act contrary to that belief would be to contradict myself but am I a hundred percent sure God exists? Of course not.

I read somewhere that for most of Mother Teresa's life, she struggled with doubt about God. Charles Darwin, a man of science, nearing his death in fear retracted certain statements against God and science.

The thing is we just can't be sure but there are some things we can be sure of. We can be sure of the concept of the positive and of the good. We can build up the world and those around us. We can be a catholic businessman, an atheist philanthropist or whatever and at the end of our lives make sure we have no regrets.

I dunno who can get this kind of topic and the post go viral with it .. I make a novel.. and some part of it explain about god and satan.. and how human are created and descend from heaven to Earth... it is really funny that u remind me of my story.. well, i don't really believe to pray to god... , but i have seen a few prove like when someone badmouth god, they will get misfortune.. like their mouth get bent and their good father die from heart attack the next week.. etc it is true and i am not lying.. so be careful to not say bad stuff especially in praying place...

I was brought up a Christian... church school, Sunday school, and all that. When I was 13 I rejected the whole of organised religion but I still felt I had a personal relationship with God (that's what happens when you have a big ego!), who was listening to my prayers. So I was pretty much a theist for awhile. Then I got interested in the expression,"The Lord helps those who help themselves," which I didn't know wasn't a biblical quote, and ultimately drifted into deism. I didn't really think about any of this very deeply until 15 years ago when a girlfriend turned me onto science authors, particularly Carl Sagan, and later Richard Dawson.

Then I started actively questioning everything I believed in. A few years later I became interested in Buddhism, and started investigating my own mind, from a different perspective, and the origin of all views, opinions and beliefs. I quickly came to realise that there are two kinds of belief: the kind embedded in our subconscious by parents, teachers and socialisation, when we are young, and the kind arrived at by logical thinking. Subconscious beliefs are near impossible to erase (that's the whole idea!). Conscious beliefs can change each time we hear a more logical argument. So it's possible to hold very contradictory beliefs - conscious and subconscious. This is not hypocrisy, it's just the way the mind works.

The subconscious beliefs are often cultural memes that function to bind us to a tribe and the tribe's way of thinking: "I am a Christian. God will take care of me after I die. Christians are superior. White skin is superior to dark skin. Homosexuality is evil. I will go the Hell if I don't do what God says," etc. Very few of these memes can stand up to scientific investigation, and many involve the metaphysical/supernatural.

It makes no sense to think that going against these beliefs is going against our "self" - because they are not "our" beliefs, they were implanted in our subconscious by others. So it's up to us to apply critical thinking to them and reject them when they are irrational. One exception is that most religions have a moral code that exists to maintain social harmony. If it stands up to logical scrutiny, there's no reason to reject it.

As for God and the afterlife, these are memes that many of us desperately want to be true, so we can live on forever in some way, and that is why we don't question them. Personally, I think the idea of a God that interferes in human affairs is clearly false. A god that just ensures we have an afterlife - that is beyond current science - also seems unlikely, though not impossible. Better to live our lives as if this is the only one we have, and every moment is precious.

I was raised, initially, Catholic but that didn't last long because my father went full-on anti-theist. I've always been pretty solid in my faith but never particularly thought about it in-depth until I started college and started to evaluate it a lot more. Right now my faith in God is stronger than ever, and I'm feeling the need to take a more active role by going to church and such. I think a lot of people fuck up and act like God's supposed to be like a fairy godmother that does anything you say so long as you pray hard enough, then get assmad when it doesn't work that way; what would be the point of heaven if you didn't have to put forth an effort and work towards things here on earth? Gotta earn shit, man, God's just there to give you strength, inspiration, or guidance to help you meet these goals

God? Which one? Which bible version? He, she, it, they, them, whatever is right in the company of the easter bunny, and santa claus for me. A fictional character in a lawless time, a brillaint ruse conjured up by the wealthy to control the peasant masses. We humans do have vivid imaginations. Every successful cultural has had some all powerful being they worshipped, naturally conflicts arose as to whose god was the rightful god, the christian god we know today was due to successful spreading of the word...via any means necessary..ANY MEANS, the lives lost are unimaginable, the cultures lost, long forgotten.